Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a Merry Christmas! Santa came early for us. We are very thankful that we got to share our Christmas with my step-mom Mary and my brother Ryan for the first time in almost 10 years. They had a bit of a rough start getting out here since the weather was very uncooperative, but they finally made in on Friday the 18th (one day later than expected). We did a little shopping, celebrated my grandpa's 75th birthday, had 3 Christmas get together's with family, and spent quality time on the Wii. All in all we had a wonderful time. I'm very sad to see them go.

Reading with Grandma Mary

A little love from my "little" brother

Go Illini!

Sportin' her new John Deere boots

Ryan & I found time to make snow angels

Reading with Uncle Ryan

Addison had a wonderful 2nd Christmas. She was so much fun this year. It was great to see her tear in to her presents and get all excited. Between Mom and Dad, all of her grandparents, and other family she was spoiled rotten. She got lots of books, 2 baby dolls, a slide, Elmo Live, a 4-wheeler, a kitchen, some clothes, fancy pink John Deere boots, a drum and other loud musical instruments (aahhh!!!)...the list goes on. Next year we hope she'll have a little brother or sister to share with. Tristan and I didn't do too bad either. We are all very thankful!

Her new Christmas apron from Aunt Crystal

Unwrapping her new 4 wheeler

Helping Uncle Ryan

Our Christmas present ;)

Someone is spoiled...

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

The stockings are hung, the tree is up, the decorations are out, and the lights are on the house.

It's amazing how fatherhood has made Tristan go Griswold. Ok, so maybe that's a bit of an exaggeration...but compared to last years Christmas light display, this year's is great! Actually, for the the last two years our outdoor Christmas lights consisted of one string of hand-me-down lights (left by the previous owners of the house) across the roof line. We may have splurged last year and put some around the front door as well.

Addison has surprised me and is managing to stay away from the Christmas tree. I wish she would have let me know that it would be of no interest to her before I went out and spent $16 on plastic bulbs. :P

Now to get the rest of my shopping done...

Prom night!

Ok, not really. It did feel like it a little, minus the corsage. Although there was no wine, fancy name tags, or cute little hand passed hors d'oeuvres on prom night. Tristan received an award from work on Friday night. We were invited to a fancy little banquet held at Terra Blanca winery. His award is quite shiny and I'm certain I could knock someone out with it if I had to. Although I can't remember the entire reason he was recognized, I do remember he "sets the bar." For as hard has he works, he definately deserves this. I'm very proud of him!

The Cheerio Incident

You can't have a TP incident without a Cheerio incident to follow. Luckily I caught her before she dumped out the entire box of Cheerios.

After the dog graciously helped me clean them up, Addison decided she needed to cook.

I can't tell you how much fun she is. Every day...something new.

Fantasy vs. Reality

So my step-sis Natalie and her family are here visiting for Thanksgiving. Nat is a stay at home mom and lives 8 or so hours away in Rexburg, ID. We talk on the phone every week (sometimes daily) and often talk about how great it would be if she were here (or I were there. Ha! Yeah right). We could get together all the time, let the kids play, etc. Well we had the pleasure of spending some time together last weekend when we took the kids to get Christmas pictures. Can you say nightmare? Haha! Addison is teething and was already having a rough day and wasn’t real happy about getting pictures. Colton on the other hand was a complete ham and did awesome!! In between Addison’s tears and mad dashes off the backdrop, I did manage to get a couple decent pictures of her and a cute one of the two of them. We ran over to Costco real quick and Addison had a meltdown. Everyone was staring at us! Costco was full of parents… you’d think they’d never dealt with a little toddler drama before. After Costco we headed back to the mall to pick up pictures where the kids proceeded to take turns throwing fits. Ahh! Such a fun day! All we could do was laugh. Guess it’s better that we keep our dreams of living in the same town and our blissful days together with our kids in our heads. On the plus side, Nat and her hubby Bryce came over later with Colton and had dinner with us. The kids played together great and had fun together in the bathtub. A nice ending to a rather hectic day.

This one pretty much sums it all up! Haha!

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house...

I ended up choosing this one as her Christmas pic. I wanted a full shot of her dress. (Thanks for the dress Grammy Cathy!)

This one was taken during one of her many mad dashes.

It's my favorite shot of her.

The winning pic of the kids.